Activities: Kosovo Verification Mission.

The objective was to spread the verifiers all over Kosovo but because of the low build-up of the Mission that objective was only partly reached. Instead, the verifiers often concentrated on those areas from which disturbances were reported (1).

The KVM concentrated on peacekeeping tasks, with some elements of peacemaking and also a few peacebuilding/emergency aid elements included.

Peacekeeping activities

1. Patrolling by car.

2. Intervening if possible if they came across violent incidents. Sometimes their presence was enough to stop violence–for example, on arrival in one place the Serbian police stopped harassing a group of Albanian young men (2).

3. Monitoring a possible outbreak of violence before it occurred, in order to at least determine who had started the shooting if there was any. To do that, in at least one case the KVM established verifiers in command posts on opposite sides (3).

4. Accompanying Serbian police and Serbian investigators to places controlled by the UCK (4), and/or in order to reassure the Albanian population who had reason to fear harassment by Serbian police. In one case, the escorts were cancelled when the UCK informed the KVM that they could not guarantee the safety of the verifiers (5).

5. Establishing permanent outposts in crisis areas, e.g. in Malisevo, a small town originally controlled by the UCK, then taken over by the Yugoslav military, in order to encourage return to that town (6).

6. Visiting sites of violence where fighting took place or dead bodies were found, or alleged mass grave sites. They usually documented the scene and reported on it (7).

7. Monitoring several court trials (8).

8. Their work also included weapons verification inspections in Yugoslav army barracks, and inspections of company positions (9).

9. Reporting was another important part of the Mission’s tasks, including reports on the situation of refugees and displaced persons.

Peacemaking activities

Peacemaking activities were usually closely linked to the peacekeeping functions of the KVM–for example, when agreements were negotiated between the UCK and Yugoslav army and police to separate the parties in a place like Malisevo (10).

Another activity in this field not included in the original mandate (11) was negotiation for the release of hostages and war prisoners. For example, the KVM negotiated the release of five civilians taken hostage by the UCK whom they then picked up and brought back into safety (12), and the release of eight Yugoslav soldiers (13).

Peacebuilding activities

At that point in time the KVM did not engage in peacebuilding in the sense of longer-term activities, but there were some KVM and KDOM activities related to the return of refugees and displaced persons, and reconstruction work:

Liaison with local and international NGOs on the situation of refugees and displaced persons (14);

The KVM with the KDOM, USAID, UNHCR and NGOs undertook the rebuilding of facilities in Malisevo (15). Similar activities also occurred in other places, e.g. repairing electricity in an area, or reconstruction of school buildings (16).

Notes :

(1) : Wenig 1999/2000:84; Ambassador William Walker, “On-the-record-briefing on the Kosovo Verification Mission”, released by the Office of the Spokesman, January 8, 1999.

(14) : For example, the KDOM had a meeting with representatives of the Mother Theresa Society and Albanian leaders to discuss the situation of IDPs who fled their homes in reaction to fighting. (Kosovo Update 2.2.99 by the Bureau of European Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, www.state.gov./www/regions/eur/rpt_990202_kdom.html).